


Secrets Not Worth Telling

by Evil_Little_Dog



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist
Genre: Challenge Response, Community: fma_fic_contest, Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-03-13
Updated: 2011-03-13
Packaged: 2017-10-16 22:41:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/170166
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evil_Little_Dog/pseuds/Evil_Little_Dog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Summary: He lets her keep his secrets.<br/>Disclaimer: Do I look like a Holstein to you…? Wait, don’t answer that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Secrets Not Worth Telling

* * *

Pinako was running a scam, Hohenheim was sure of it. No one was so lucky to win that many hands of poker in one game. The fact that Dominic couldn’t keep up – either with the game or the beer – put him against the odds for being her partner in crime. Unless, of course, he was a very good actor, but Hohenheim just didn’t see it. Dominic seemed too in awe of Pinako for that sort of thing. Well, ‘awe’ might not be the right word, but Hohenheim thought it worked, at least until Pinako decided what she was going to do to the man. With that wicked grin glinting as she raked in the latest pot, Hohenheim decided he really didn’t want to know her decision. She was a big girl; she could take care of herself.

That decided, he held up his hand before the cards were dealt. “You’ve taken enough of my money tonight, Pinako.”

“You just don’t like losing your sens to a woman.” Her pipe burned gently, haloing her head in thin wreathes of smoke.

Grabbing Dominic’s shoulder, Hohenheim shoved him back in his chair. “Maybe the game’s turned sour.” His nose wrinkled as Dominic belched, the acrid fumes polluting the air. “Or maybe it’s just Dominic.”

Pinako waved a hand in front of her nose to disperse the stench as Dominic landed, face down, on the table. “So, do we leave him here? I’d hate to have to carry him.”

“It’s not really right to leave him behind, is it?” Hohenheim prodded Dominic’s shoulder, making the man snort. “Besides, the bartender doesn’t look like she’d allow Dominic to sleep here.”

Her mouth turning down, Pinako glared at the bartender. The other woman glowered right back, a silent clash of wills that should’ve sent sparks flying. Hohenheim decided never to get between a pair of women who looked like that. It even made the air feel close and stuffy and Hohenheim took the better part of valor and shifted back out of the way.

“You can leave him on the sidewalk, for all I care,” the barkeep told them, “but he ain’t stayin’.”

They hauled up Dominic between them, Pinako’s strength surprising Hohenheim though he shouldn’t be shocked; Pinako worked with metal; hammering, cutting and shaping it into replacement limbs. She was strong and her blue eyes held the secrets that Hohenheim allowed her – they first met when she was just a child, Pinako was too smart for her own good and recognized what Hohenheim had never let others see – that it was impossible to hurt him; that he didn’t change, even through the years she’d known him.

It was a gamble, letting her know even that much, but Hohenheim trusted her. As if she could read his thoughts, Pinako’s eyes turned toward his, a dangerous little smile lighting her face. “Let’s dump him off and go have some real fun, Hohenheim.”

He groaned, shifting Dominic’s dead weight. “You’ll be the death of me one day.”

* * *

  



End file.
